a. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally a label and a manufacturing method thereof, and, more particularly to a label that is a clean release magnet, and a manufacturing method thereof.
b. Description of Related Art
A need exists for an improved label, having a magnet attached thereto, which may be efficiently and economically manufactured, and which may be adhered to a product and removed therefrom without damaging the product or obstructing the product label itself.
Magnetic labels are well known in the art and generally include advertising material printed on one side of label stock and a magnet permanently adhered to the other side. In use, magnetic labels are generally placed onto a metallic object and may serve the dual purpose of advertising a product, and securing paper and other such material underneath the magnetic label. Thus far, the usage potential of magnetic labels has been limited, in that the magnetic label typically requires a separate means of delivery to a customer than the advertised product itself. Moreover, if the magnetic label is affixed to an advertised product, removal of the label from the product in turn damages the product label itself, or may contaminate the product contents.
In the past, magnetic labels were generally manufactured by permanently adhering printed material onto a magnet and thereafter cutting the magnets to a desired size or shape. The conventional manufacturing methods of the past have had limited potential, in that once the magnetic labels have been cut, a seller generally has to separately distribute the magnetic label with each product. For products manufactured by the thousands or millions, such distribution requirements can significantly increase the overall cost of the product.
In the art, there currently exist various other conventional magnetic labels, as disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,237,837, 6,037,029, 6,024,278, 6,024,277, 5,924,624, 5,868,498, 5,676,307, 5,641,116, 5,458,282 and 4,488,922. The magnetic labels disclosed therein include basic components such as a label or advertising material affixed to a magnet.
These conventional magnetic labels however have several of the same disadvantages and drawbacks of the conventional magnetic labels, as described above. Some of the key drawbacks generally include the limited usage potential, wherein the seller is required to deliver the labels separately with each product, or wherein removal of the label from a product damages the product label itself. Likewise, from a manufacturing standpoint, the labels described in the above-identified U.S. Patents also do not facilitate or reduce the cost of manufacturing and distribution of products with the labels.
The invention solves the problems and overcomes the drawbacks and disadvantages of the prior art by providing a magnetic label, which may be adhered to and removed from a product without damaging the product label itself.
Thus an aspect of the present invention is to avoid the need to separately distribute a magnetic label with a product.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a self adhering magnetic label, which may be affixed to the outside of a product packaging or container without contaminating the food products by the magnetic label and its components.
The invention accomplishes these aspects by providing a clean release magnet label including a pressure sensitive carrier layer having a permanent or a clean release adhesive applied to a first face, and a clean release adhesive applied to a second face. A flexible or rigid magnet layer may be removably affixed to the pressure sensitive carrier layer with the clean release adhesive, and a filmic face layer, having printing thereon, may be attached to the magnet layer with an adhesive. The clean release magnet label may be placed on a product, and upon removal of the magnet layer from the pressure sensitive carrier layer, the magnet layer is non-tacky and without any sticky residue, or may be slightly-tacky.
For the clean release magnet described above, the pressure sensitive carrier layer may be clear, opaque or have printing thereon, and have a backing layer removably attached to it. Alternatively, sections of the pressure sensitive carrier layer may be clear, opaque or have printing thereon. The pressure sensitive carrier layer may be substantially coextensive with the magnet layer and the filmic face layer, or may be substantially smaller than the magnet layer and/or the filmic face layer. The filmic face layer may be plain paper, embossed or glossy paper, PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride), PET (Polyethylene Terephlatate) or Tyvek, or other materials known in the art.
In an alternate embodiment of the clean release magnet, the present invention provides a clean release magnet label including 3-xcexa3 LABEL STOCK having a label carrier layer with a self-adhesive backing layer for adhering to a product and a film layer disposed on the label carrier layer. The film layer has a permanent adhesive on a top surface and a dry release adhesive on a bottom surface. The dry release adhesive has a circular pattern with the adhesive being disposed outside circles in the circular pattern. The label carrier layer is adhered to the film layer by the dry release adhesive. A magnet layer is removably affixed to the 3-xcexa3 LABEL STOCK with the permanent adhesive on the top surface of the film layer. When the magnet layer is removed from the label carrier layer, the film layer remains adhered to the magnet layer and the label carrier layer remains adhered to the product.
The present invention also provides a method of manufacturing a clean release magnet. The method includes the steps of printing information on a label layer having a self-adhering surface, thereby denoting a first layer. Next, a pressure sensitive carrier layer, having a clean release adhesive on a first surface and a permanent or clean release adhesive on a second surface, may be affixed to a magnet layer, to thereby denote a second layer. The pressure sensitive carrier layer may also include a backing layer. Thereafter the first layer may be affixed to the second layer, adjacent the magnet layer, to thereby denote a third layer. The third layer may then be cut, for example, by die-cutting to a predetermined depth. The predetermined depth may be defined by a distance from a top of the clean release magnet to a bottom of the clean release magnet, excluding a thickness of the backing layer. The clean release magnet may be manually or automatically placed on a product, and upon removal of the magnet layer from the pressure sensitive carrier layer, the magnet layer and the pressure sensitive carrier layer are non-tacky. For the cutting step, the third layer may be separated into a usable product matrix and a waste product matrix, and the waste product matrix may be discarded.